Over the more than 1,600 turns To Boldly Go (TBG) has been in existence, there have been numerous player guides, advice pages, information summaries, re-writes of the official rules, and the like. Many of these attempts were flawed, a few were brilliant, but they were all created out of a common desire to help the TBG community -- especially newer players (newbies) -- play better.

The Ultimate Guide to TBG takes the best of the past materials, updates and improves them, adds a great deal of new information, and combines them into a single, user-friendly document. Sources that remain (mostly) accurate and useful are properly cited and linked-to from this document as appropriate. Out of date or duplicative sources, including the five guides that The Ultimate Guide to TBG specifically supercedes, are acknowledged here. Without these past efforts, this document would not exist. Thanks also go to my initial TBG mentor, Corby, who first captained Ward, and who later gained equal fame (infamy?) at the helm of Borg Prime. Finally, many thanks to Captain Remco of ScAvenger, whose editing and hosting of this Guide are greatly appreciated.

In case you're wondering who the hell I am and why I'm "qualified" for this project, here are the basics: I've been playing TBG for over 1,400 turns -- more than nine years -- as captain of Constitution. I'm probably best known as the longest serving member of FIST (The Federation of Independent Space Travelers), co-founder of the now-defunct UPF (Universal Police Force), and the first Galactic President (turns 600-800), but I was also an independent ship my first 300 turns.

I hope you find The Ultimate Guide to TBG to be a valuable resource. For those who've read the Guide before and are wondering what's changed, here's an Update History and a list of Recent rule changes. Feel free to e-mail me with any comments or suggestions. Good luck, and safe journeys.

Andy, Constitution

You're going to be told this 100 times because it's so important: Read the damn rules! They're not perfect, but most of the answers are there. If you ignore this bit of advice, you're likely to make a lot of stupid mistakes. You've been warned.

A TBG Rules Index, which makes searching for specific rules much easier, was created by Captain Boi of the Repulse and has since been updated by ScAvenger and myself. ScAvenger's About Locations page is also handy, giving you a quick overview of what can be done at various location types. [1]

Read at least the last 10-20 issues of the Subspace Times (SST); more if you have time. Corby's SST archive and Galaxion's SST archive both go all the way back to turn 1 (although turns 22 and 33 are missing). [2] Galaxion's SST archive also has a search feature. The SST is required reading each turn; ships that don't read it rarely thrive. There's a lot of good information -- who's praising and denouncing the Prophets, the damage value of any player battles, a summary of Popcorn sales, a list of Chosen and Heretics, public and anonymous posts by players, player rankings, a snapshot of certain shops (where you can buy modules), etc....

Look over the TBG player pages, or at least the active player pages. Some of these pages provide useful information about hostile or helpful ships (also see The Hostile and Chosen ships page maintained by the Fierce Prophet). Most veteran players -- even the aggressive ones -- are nice to newbies (commonly considered to be ships 100 turns of age or younger), but it pays to do a little research. Also, you'll want to create your own player page as soon as possible, so make notes about what you like and add it to your own page. For an overview of the best player pages, game tools and the like, see ScAvenger's TBG Galactic Portal. I cite to many of those links in this Guide, but it's a great stand-alone page regardless.

Finally, many players find it helpful to use Corby's Turnulator, which is a handy order submission form that remembers orders you've already submitted that turn, and has user-friendly anchor links, inline turn controls and even a "ship notes" feature.

Before I lay out my suggestions for how to get off to a good start, I thought I'd mention a few things to avoid. Most of these no-no's revolve around the fact that you have limited energy ($) to start the game. If your reserves drop too low, you may not be able to make essential purchases, or even short jumps. Be careful. [3] Early on you want to think about every expenditure. When in doubt, don't do/buy it. This is by no means a complete list:

• Don't forget to put in orders every turn. If you don't have time, or won't have computer access, jump to the Holiday Planet (a safe location where your ship will automatically train crew, maintain non-demo modules, and repair modules -- in that order -- until you're ready to return); [4]
• Don't pay for schools or academies until you really need them. A good guideline is to have at least 4 skills for the officer in question, and at least $200 on hand, before you spend the $50 for School Level 1; [5]
• Don't forget to hail (e-mail) the players you're paired with, and don't ignore the hails they send you (see Communications);
• Don't hire mercenaries unless you happen to be very near the next mercenary destination and have an empty pod (see Criminals, Medicine & Mercenaries);
• Don't make long/expensive jumps unless you're sure such a jump will result in an even greater reward/profit;
• Don't buy torpedoes. They are very weak/expensive weapons not meant for newbies (see Combat Generally);
• Don't denounce the Prophets without permission, and don't schism at all (unless it's part of a well organized overthrow attempt; see Religion & Favour);
• Don't purge starnet terminals (this will annoy all the ships that have accessed the terminal(s) in question);
• Don't release Dybuk (you won't find it referenced in the rules, but see Popcorn & Dybuk).

As a new captain, the first thing to remember is that your ship is made of demo modules (demo mods). Demo mods start at 94% reliability and degrade 1% each turn they're working. From a practical standpoint, that means your demo mods only have a useful life of about 25-30 turns before they become more trouble to repair than they're worth. In other words, the clock is ticking as soon as you acquire your ship.

With that in mind, your first task should be to obtain a primitive or basic warp drive. Warps are essential for most movement around the galaxy, and without a working warp you'll usually be stranded. Stargates are an exception, but they aren't usable unless you have an artifact with the proper key, or at least 60 Engineering favour so that you can cast the "Improvise Key" spell). If you somehow find yourself without any warps (working or broken), it's possible to purchase an emergency primitive demo warp for $500, but that's too expensive for many newbies.

All new players start in a homeworld system (that is, a system inhabited by aliens) that has modules for sale in the local shop(s). Hopefully, one or more primitive/basic warps are available for sale. Don't buy right away unless they're at or near full shop reliability -- 95% -- which also means they'll be selling below the normal retail price, which is $100 for primitive-tech, $200 for basic. If there are no primitive/basic warps in your system's shop(s), or if the warps are of low reliability, check the Galactic Council's public Low Tech Shop Modules page for other locations near you. And if you still can't find what you need, contact the Galactic President (currently Wanderer). In addition to the Starmap in your turn report, you can also use a public mapulator to calculate your jump costs to various systems. In addition to the Low Tech Shop Modules page (which has a mapulator included), I recommend Darius' Navigation System, Galaxion's mapulator, or ScAvenger's terrain mapulator.

Note that a broken warp can be repaired and used in the same turn even if it's your only warp. Although the "Jump To" drop down menu will likely be empty, you can type in your destination in the "Jump To" text field. Just make sure you can afford the jump to whatever system you type in.

Once you have your non-demo warp, or are moving to acquire it, you should seriously consider making at least one trade-run, regardless of the type of ship you want to develop. When you started you had $500, and after you buy your warp you'll probably have between $300-$450. Jumps and new modules cost $, and you'll be down to nothing in a flash if you're not careful. Here's the basic process for making a good trade-run:

• Using ScAvenger's Factories map, find factories that are nearby and that make trade goods you can afford, but that aren't too low-end. Don't bother with trade goods that sell for less then $125; most of your profit will be eaten up by jump-costs.

• Then, use ScAvenger's Trade Good Index to find the systems near you that have colonies buying those specific trade-goods. Use the mapulator on those pages to determine your jump costs. Remember that several small jumps of the same total distance cost less than one long jump, but that a specific colony's purchase price can drop quickly depending on how many other ships are selling the trade good at that location.

• Finally, use the Presidential Office of Information site or the DOW trade pages (by resource or by system) to find the best prices for the trade-goods you're considering, and compare those to your jump costs to determine the most profitable trade-run. Make sure that you'll have enough $ to reach your destination and that you're still going to clear a profit after the sale; remember that buying the trade-good itself will increase your mass and thus your jump costs.

For those that like printable static maps, Odinjar Dreki has created a handy Resources page that includes a trade goods chart listing the cost and factory/colony locations of each good, and a very cool 9-sector galactic map that makes finding specific star-systems easy.

See the Trading (Trade Goods) section for a more detailed look at trading mechanics and options. Some players find this process too cumbersome and instead join an alliance, an information sharing organization, or both. Through the use of shared information from multiple players, player groups can make trading much easier, but I generally advise newbies not to join player groups right away unless they provide personalized assistance to newbies. Currently, the only such group is Menudo (which I administrate). There's great value to learning how the game works first hand (at least for a while), and joining a large or non-newbie focused player group can stunt that education process. Also, you want to be very careful who you trust your secret or sharing URL to (a condition of most player groups). For a more complete discussion of this issue, see the Player Groups section.

TBG is a game of diplomacy as well as one of "exploration, combat, trade, adventure, learning, and acquisition". That means your success, and sometimes your survival, will depend on your interactions with other people.

For starters, be sure to set your ship's flag (also called a "banner"). Leaving your flag at the default ("No Flag Set") is a good way to get attacked as a suspected derelict. Next, include your e-mail address in that flag to ensure smooth communications with other ships. In addition, consider setting up your own player page. Use this form to open a w++ account, which gives you a web page on tbg.fyndo.com linked to your shipname and a way to put images in your banner. Take a look at the other player pages to see what you like, and what you might create for yourself.

When two player-ships are paired, it's customary for the ship that's lower in the power sort (the one listed on the right side) to hail the more powerful ship. Something polite that states your peaceful intentions (assuming they're peaceful). This is also a good time to ask if they're interested in that adventure you have your eye on (since more powerful ships get to try adventures, buy modules, and sell cargo before less powerful ships), and perhaps start the dialog for a trade. That said, it's perfectly acceptable for the stronger ship to hail first if they wish to speed communications. Indeed, power sorting does not necessarily reflect combat superiority, so there are cases when you would be wise to hail first even when you're nominally the "stronger" player. However, be aware that some stronger ships will expect the weaker ship to hail first, and will take it as an affront (and a sign of laziness/poor captaining) if the weaker ship doesn't hail. This in turn may prompt the stronger ship to attack.

Check your TBG e-mail at least once a day if at all possible; more often if you are negotiating a trade or seeking to talk your way out of combat. Remember, players come from all over the world, and different time zones and work/sleep schedules can significantly slow e-mail response times. An excellent example of how poor (or, in this case, no) communication can lead to bad things is presented in Borg Prime's From Ballaster to just Ballast page.

Often, a prompt and friendly hail from a newbie to a more experienced player will result in an offer of a free module (if they have a low-tech module to spare), a module trade, or other assistance (e.g., some players will refrain from selling cargo to allow newbies a better price). Caution should be used in asking for modules before they are offered, as this may be perceived as begging. Although some ships may accede to your request, others may be annoyed. If you desire assistance, I recommend offering something of value in return -- for example, newbies often obtain high-level adventure info that they can't use, but which might be valuable to an older ship. If you are offered a free module or a module trade, be very sure to:

• Set your Diplomatic Option to "Make Demands";
• Set your Demands menu to the module you want; and
• Set your Gifts menu to the module(s) you want gift, if any (you can set any number to gift, but only one can be demanded from you per turn).

As one of the prior guides said, while most older ships are inclined to help newbies, they don't like their help being taken for granted, so do your best to be gracious and appreciative. Above all, it's up to you to keep communicating with the more powerful ship and to keep things going smoothly.

Communications of this sort shouldn't just be limited to ships you're paired with. It can also be useful to hail the other player-ships you see in your system each turn. As with ships you're paired with, this can prompt helpful advice, offers of assistance, or trades. Perhaps more importantly, it gives you a chance to establish good relations with other players, which become increasingly important as your ship develops and grows.

Whenever possible, hails should be sent via standard e-mail addresses. If the ship you wish to contact doesn't list an e-mail address in its flag or web page, then use the TBG anonymous mail (Anon Mail) system. [6] Be sure to include your ship name and direct e-mail address in any Anon Mail communication. The Anon Mail system is not ideal -- the end formatting is often poor (although it can help to use HTML), and some players may be unable to read/receive such messages at all. Only use Anon Mail as a last resort.

Good communications and diplomacy lead to friendly and productive relationships with a growing number of ships. One of the best ways for two ships to work together is by allying. A player ship may ally with another player ship in the same star system in order to give them $. If the two players ally with each other, the more powerful ship will automatically guard the less powerful ship when they're in the same system, preventing the less powerful ship from pairing with anyone. This feature also allows the less powerful ship to act as if they have the same power index as their ally with respect to adventure and cargo-selling priority, homeworld alien intimidating (a great way to make $), and the like. This can be a significant benefit if your ally is particularly powerful. Note that you can only ally with one ship at a time, although an unlimited number of ships can name you as their ally.

To understand how your ship's power index is calculated, and how power sorting effects everything from ship pairings and allying to the order of officer and ship actions, see Galaxion's well-written Power Index page. [7]

Your demo pod will only work so many times before it permanantly breaks. When it will break is unknown, so don't rely on it for too long. Once you've bought a non-demo warp and made a trade run or two, buy a non-demo pod from a shop (or shoot one off an alien if you can find a weak one). A basic pod is best, as this will allow you to carry two units of cargo. However, you can only carry one type of trade good in a given pod regardless of the pod's capacity.

Keep your demo mods until they break and are repaired at least once. This ensures you'll get the skill for repairing them fairly early on. After that, as discussed in the Choosing A Path section, you may be ahead to sell many of your demo mods depending on the path you choose for your ship. Demo mods cannot be scrapped and have no value when sold.

There are many ways to make modest amounts of $, only some of which are covered in-depth in this Guide. They include:

• Asteroid mining (map) (an engineering action that allows $ to be collected based on impulse%, up to $250 a turn in numbered systems and $500 a turn in named systems, by the first ship that tries to mine a given asteroid belt each turn);
• Capturing criminals (a weaponry action that allows you to detain criminals, after which you can collect a reward or bribe ($500 for a low-level "Heavy"), and/or obtain information on other criminals via additional officer actions), see Criminals, Medicine & Mercenaries;
• Chocolate harvesting (map) (an engineering action; a comet cloud provides a unit of Chocolate to the first ship that tries to harvest it each turn), see Trading (Trade Goods);
• Collecting Popcorn (a ship action allowing a valuable but toxic substance to be brought onboard), see Popcorn & Dybuk;
• Hiring mercenaries (a ship action allowing you to win a mercenary contract of $30 to $480, if you jump to the correct system with the strongest merc force; usually not appropriate for newbies unless you're very near the next mercenary destination and have an empty pod), see Criminals, Medicine & Mercenaries;
• Homeworld intimidating (map) (a weaponry action allowing you to extort $ from aliens when you're the most powerful ship at a homeworld, with the $ amount based on the race's plague%, tech-level, and when they were last intimidated; rarely available to newbies unless they're allied with a more powerful ship); [9]
• Researching medicine (map) (a medical action giving you a chance of finding medicine at ocean locations based on your sickbay%, which can then be sold to a specific race's homeworld for anywhere from $50 to $5000 -- low odds of success for most newbies, but worthwhile for a bored medical officer), see Criminals, Medicine & Mercenaries; and
• Star skimming (map) (an engineering action that allows between $50 and $500 to be harvested from stellar coronaspheres, with a 50% chance of damage to a random module from unexpected flares -- they require strong shields and are not usually recommended for newbies with demo-mods).

Finally, I strongly recommend that you save and organize all your turn reports and TBG e-mails, and keep a log/diary of your ship interactions, successes/failures, major events, etc.... There's a lot to remember in TBG, and documentation like this will help a great deal.

The three primary starting strategies are Trading (that is, buying and selling trade goods), Adventuring and Alien Combat. Each are discussed in their own section below. Few players will try a "pure" form of these strategies, although a small number of ships have done so quite successfully. Most often, players will blend two or three of these strategies as they learn the game and discover what their preferences are (and what they're best at). In some cases it can be effective to avoid committing significant resources until one of these strategies presents itself opportunistically.

I differ with at least one of the past TBG guides that claimed the "most common newbie error...is trying to balance all the options and consequently running out of resources to do any one thing well." Done properly, a balanced approach can be very effective -- arguably more so than the "pure" forms of these strategies, which can leave a ship very strong in some respects, but very weak in others. The bottom line is to make as much $ as possible, shed your demo mods, and develop your ship as quickly (and intelligently) as possible. And there are many, many ways to do that.

A separate section near the end of the Guide, Criminals, Medicine & Mercenaries, has been created to discuss some secondary $-making strategies in more detail. While usually not as lucrative as the primary strategies, these approaches can still be quite useful at various stages of your ship's development.

Early on, trade goods are probably the best way to make $ on your own if you know where to sell items for a healthy profit. In its pure form it also requires the least equipment (a warp drive and a pod). On the down-side, it can be fairly boring, and downright frustrating when you make an expensive jump only to find that the buying-price has dropped and you're going to lose money on the deal....

Trade goods have a "basic value" of $25 to $500. Each item is sold at a different factory (map), with 32 factories scattered around the galaxy. Eight colonies buy each type of good. [10] A colony will buy one unit of the good it likes from each player in the system that turn, as long as the price remains at least as high as the basic value. When a colony buys a trade good, the price there drops by 35 percentage points, and increases at all other colonies which buy that good by 5 percentage points. Since powerful ships get to sell their goods before weaker ships, the price may change significantly by the time the weakest ship is able to make their sale.

Low-end trade goods are rarely worth buying -- you'll usually spend most of the profit getting to and from colonies that buy it at a decent price. One exception might be Lists ($125), because many of the buying colonies are bunched near the factory (Procyon). Harvesting Chocolate from a comet cloud (map) can also be worthwhile. Although not very profitable ($50+ at a Chocolate-buying colony, $25+ at a factory or scrap-buying colony), it's free to collect, and can be a good option when you're low on $ or when you have free pod space and nothing better for your engineer to do. Note, however, that three Chocolate-buying colonies are at the homeworlds (Aurigae, Markab and Sirius) of hostile or chaotic aliens (the other systems with Chocolate-buying colonies are Betelgeuse, Centauri, Cygni, Kruger and Pollux). Some newbies find it useful at times to quietly earn $ at a safe system that has both a comet cloud (or two) and a factory, such as Algol, Ceti, Eridani, Hamal (2), Hydrae, Kapetyn, Kruger (2), Lalande, Rastaban, Tauri, Vega and Zosca (2).

On the other hand, trading in contraband goods can be a bit risky. First, they're expensive to buy ($400-$500), which can run your $ balance dangerously low. Second, some player-ships have been known to target ships for carrying such a valuable and illicit trade good. Third, when you sell contraband to an alien colony you risk being made an enemy of that race (your cloak% represents the chance the race won't become your enemy), although each alien enemy you have earns you one point of weaponry favour per turn. Overall, trading in contraband is usually worth the risk, but be careful to sell contraband quickly and not to carry too much of it at one time (at least until you're powerful enough to defend yourself adequately).

A good compromise early on is trading the $250 trade goods: Dilithium, New Tricks, Old Songs and Quad Trees. The basic process for selecting a trade good and making a trade-run is summarized in the A Quick Trade Run? section. Remember, to reduce costs, you can make shorter jumps and/or increase your warp% by dumping unnecessary mods or obtaining a new warp. It's also useful to note that selling happens before buying. This means you can sell the last item of cargo from a pod and then buy new cargo for that pod on the same turn. For more information on trade goods, see the TBG FAQ page on Trading, Movement, and Shops.

Adventures are the main way to gain officer skills -- each skill type (Eng/Sci/Med/Weap) has 16 different adventures, and the first time you complete each one the lead officer gains a skill point. Adventures are single-use; once an adventure is successfully completed it disappears from that location and is randomly placed somewhere else in the galaxy. Each completed adventure also gets you a free module. This makes adventures quite lucrative, although somewhat officer-intensive, since at least one officer must be involved in each adventure. Sooner or later, even "pure" Traders and Alien Combat ships seek out adventures.

The rules regarding adventures are particularly detailed and helpful, so what follows is simply a brief summary of what you'll find there. Upon entering a star system, your Science officer automatically scans all locations for adventures. The success of the scan depends on your ship's sensor% and the concealment factor of any adventures in the system (0-99%). Once your sensor% reaches 99% or above, all adventures in your current system will be visible. Adventures can also be found by having the ship explore specific locations within the system. This method will uncover any adventures hidden there regardless of the concealment factor(s). One location can be explored this way each turn. In addition, certain in-system adventures will be detected automatically if you have correctly guessed the password at a starnet terminal and received an "Adventure Detection" benefit for one of the four skill types.

Random adventures somewhere in the galaxy can be found via the "Discover Adventure" Science spell (at a cost of 10 favour), or by completing certain adventures in which your Science officer participates (see below).

Adventures require skill levels ranging from 0 to 31. For level 0 and 1 adventures, at least one crew of the lead officer (or the weaponry officer, if present) is required if there is ground combat (50% chance). At least one crew of the lead officer is required for every 2 levels thereafter (e.g., level 2 and 3 adventures require at least one crew, level 4 and 5 adventures require at least two crew, etc...) if the adventure includes a risk of fatal accidents and/or ground combat (which they do 75% of the time -- there's a 50% chance an adventure will have fatal accidents and a 50% chance it will have ground combat). [11] If there are no accidents or combat (25% chance), then no crew is needed regardless of the adventure's skill level. But in practice, it's far better to have at least the minimum crew on hand when attempting adventures, because failure is a waste of time and officer-actions.

The risks associated with fatal accidents and ground combat can be reduced by the presence of the Medical and Weaponry officers respectively (and any spells they cast). The higher level the adventure, the greater the risk, and the higher tech-level mod you'll get as treasure. Mods recovered as treasure will have a reliability of 50%-99% (although the condition of the mod has a 50% chance of being improved if the Engineering officer participates). In addition, completed adventures have a 50% chance of giving free favour of that skill-type. If the Science officer is present for a successful adventure, you have a 50% chance of discovering the location of 1 to 5 other adventures (and their treasure-type) in the galaxy.

For newbies, the challenge early on is finding adventures that are easy enough to attempt. One free source of such information is the DOW Newbie Adventures page, which lists adventures for skill levels 0-4. Another is the TBG Adventures list, which shares knowledge of lower level adventures, although lately the list has gone silent. You will also find many experienced players willing to give low-level adventure info to you if you ask nicely, particularly if you give them high-level adventure info in return (even if it's at some future date).

You may also want to check out Galaxion's fine How Adventures Work page. Note that an improved and printable Adventure Check List and Quick Lookup Table now organizes the adventures by "type", while still providing a breakdown of base accident/combat risk, favour potential, and treasure-tech per adventure level, thus superceeding the old Dragonblade/Galaxion version. Another great page is the Adventure Risk Calculator by Neil (formerly captain of Dragonblade and Callandor), and a less fancy but script-friendly version by Alexis (formerly captain of Belle Epoque). [12] Less usefully organized, but still containing some good info is the TBG FAQ page on Adventures and Officer Skills.

Aliens in TBG exist for two primary reasons: to provide combat practice for players, and to provide successful combatants with "free" (if somewhat damaged) modules. Every alien pairing should be viewed with those reasons firmly in mind. The key is to learn how to analyze your combat capabilities and those of aliens. Fortunately, aliens are predictable in most respects, so most of the process is learning the combat rules and reviewing your turn report very carefully.

In most cases, attacking an alien causes that race to become your enemy (so do certain other actions, such as contraband selling). This means aliens of that race will attack you on sight. Having alien enemies also earns you weaponry favor every turn -- one point per enemy each turn (up to your skill level). Weaponry favor can allow you to bless weapons (increasing their effectiveness 50% the same way an artifact does) or give you access to fully trained crew recruits, among other things.

Ants (homeworld: Hamal), Beetles (homeworld: Draconis), Spiders (homeworld: Caph) and Wasps (homeworld: Kochab) have the lowest tech ships of all aliens, and are neutral races ("friendly at first but become permanent enemies when attacked"). Thus, they tend to make good first-targets for newbie captains (although you should probably leave their homeworld the turn you attack them).

Aliens can't:

• Gift modules, so setting your Diplomatic Option to "Make Demands" has no effect (and is the same as not attacking);
• Cast spells, which, among other things, means they can't bless modules unless they have the appropriate artifact;
• Hide from combat; or
• Chase or be chased, so alien combat will almost always be a one-turn affair. This tends to make combat simpler, but it also means you don't have the option of a multi-turn battle to get the modules you want.

There are a few tricky things that aliens can do:

• Their modules can sometimes be out of sequence, thus you might see cloaks sorted before sensors or fighters before rams, so be sure to look carefuly;
• They can make jumps without warp drives, so don't think that you can strand an alien by removing its warps;
• All their modules work every turn regardless of the reliability%, so you'll never see an alien with broken mods; and
• They can self-destruct when at their homeworld.

Before jumping into a discussion of alien or player combat, you need to get very familiar with the capabilities of your weapons. What range(s) they work at, how much damage they do, and what the effects of "favouring" and "blessing" are. Here's an improved version of the chart that appears in the combat rules:

Torpedoes should also be mentioned here. From the rules: "Photon Torpedoes can attack at any range, and a single torpedo does damage according to the range: 2 point [sic] at Remote rising to 14 at Adjacent. When using more than 1 torpedo per round, damage is related to the square root of the number used, i.e. 4 torpedoes do twice as much damage as 1, and 9 do three times as much as 1." Torpedoes were originally introduced into the game as way of sopping up excess $, and were not intended to be terribly effective weapons, but they are somewhat more useful in close fights since the damage amounts have doubled (it was previously 1 to 7 points for single torpedoes). Ships can get along fine without torpedoes, although some feel compelled to acquire them for the slight edge they may provide. They can be bought at arsenals (map) for $10 each or collected by the Engineering officer in minefields (map / danger).

Keep in mind that ship pairings are governed by each ship's power index -- the sum of the tech levels of all working, non-demo, modules and pods -- with ships sorted in each star system from most powerful to least powerful. As a result, it's generally difficult for powerful ships to pair with weak ships, since aliens and/or other players with intermediate power indexes usually get in the way. Even in remote locations where there's little player traffic, aliens are programmed to come between ships with a large power index disparity a significant amount of the time. Review the Communications section for more on power indexes and power sorting.

Finally, a few words about who fires first in combat. If only one ship is hostile to the other (i.e., they "Attack Regardless" or "Attack If Defied") then that ship will fire first if combat occurs. This can be a significant advantage, because you may be able to remove modules even before your opponent returns fire. If both ships attack, the combat rules say "the tie is split by favouring the one with larger minimum of its ideal range and the range at which it detects the other." Confused? The gamemaster has defined this to mean that "[t]he guarentee [sic] of first shot is more accurately described as being willing to open fire at a range longer than the one your opponent can see you at." In the event of another tie, or where combat occurs at adjacent, the more powerful ship attacks first.

Another way of expressing this is that the first shot goes to the more powerful ship, unless the less powerful ship detects the more powerful ship first and has their ideal range set for something longer than the range at which the more powerful ship can see the less powerful ship.

In order to successfully participate in combat, you need working weapons. Fighters are often the newbie weapon of choice, since they're always in range, meaning they're somewhat effective no matter what other weapons or modules you have. Unfortunately, they don't do a lot of damage, especially the low-tech fighters that newbies generally possess. Still, when fighting aliens, a little firepower is sometimes enough.

The weapons you acquire should influence the other modules you seek to obtain, and visa versa. Cloaks and impulse drives help get shorter-range weapons into range, while sensors and impulse drives help ships with longer-range weapons avoid shorter-range weapons. The fact that sensors also help find adventures is partially why there are so many sensor/fighter-heavy newbies. In addition, newbies will usually want at least one non-demo shield to help protect their ship -- and especially their weapons -- whether from aliens or other players.

There are several factors to consider when facing aliens (quoted material is directly from the rules):

1. Is the alien hostile or chaotic? Unless there's no possible range at which they'd have an advantage in combat, hostile aliens (Goblins, Rats, Snakes & Weasels) always demand a gift and attack if defied, while chaotic aliens (Hamsters, Squirrels & Worms) sometimes demand a gift and sometimes attack if defied. [14] Aliens demand "the pod containing the least [valuable] trade good other than Scrap, or a random module if the player doesn't have any non-Scrap trade goods."

2. Is the alien an enemy of yours? "Enemy means that their ships will attack the player whenever they have the chance...." Your turn report lists your alien enemies. Note that aliens lie/bluff in their flags. Ignore them. All that matters is the hostile/chaotic nature of the race in question (if any), or their enemy status. From this you can tell whether or not a specific race may attack you. Note that enemies can be pacified -- removed as enemies -- by casting a 75-favour Medical spell.

3. Is the alien at their homeworld? "Alien ships defending their homeworlds may self-destruct to harm their opponents, doing damage of 10-70 points (according to range) for each Primitive module they have left, multiplied by tech level for more advanced modules. They will delay exploding if they are either giving more damage than they're taking, or closing the range with a view to doing more damage when they do blow up [i.e., if they have a better impulse drive percentage than you]." Once they reach adjacent range, they will self-destruct regardless. Pods, cargo and artifacts do not do any damage when they explode.

In other words, enemy aliens and aliens you attack will always attempt to self-destruct at their homeworld. Non-enemy hostile aliens and some non-enemy chaotic aliens will also attempt to self-destruct at their homeworld unless there's no possible range at which they'd have an advantage in combat.

Homeworld aliens will not flee under any circumstances, and their Combat Strategy is always set to Favour Engines (i.e., impulse drives), even if it doesn't make sense for them to do so. If they self-destruct, you recover any modules that were either shot off in combat or that are blown off your ship by the alien (although all the mods will be damaged). Combat with homeworld aliens is much tougher than with non-homeworld aliens, and newbies are advised to avoid it until they've gotten some easier combat experiences under their belt (unless you're very sure of what you're doing).

Friendly and neutral aliens that are not your enemy and not at their homeworld almost always set their Interaction orders to the default settings (Diplomatic Option: "Flee", Combat Strategy: "Favour Fleeing", Ideal Range: "Remote"), meaning such aliens always try to fight at the longest range possible, regardless of the weapons they have. This tends to make them easy targets. The one known exception is that friendly aliens who are pacified and attacked in the same turn favour randomly, rather than favouring fleeing. The Combat Strategy of non-homeworld enemy aliens is also set randomly, meaning they might favour weapons, shields, engines, sensors or cloaks (this is true even if there's no possible range at which they'd have an advantage in combat).

4. Does the alien have a better sensor% than your cloak%? Or a better cloak% than your sensor%? This, combined with the terrain (i.e., default range) of the system (Clear = Remote, Asteroids = Long, Nebula = Short), will tell you who controls the initial range of combat (if anyone). Each 10% Sn/Cl advantage or disadvantage allows combat to start 1 range in or out from the default range. Sensors can allow you to see an opponent further away than normal, while cloaks can allow you to sneak-up on an opponent. Per the rules: "[I]n clear terrain a ship with sensor factor 10% will see a ship with cloak factor 20% only at Distant range (Remote reduced by 1). But in a nebula a ship with sensor factor 20% will detect a ship with cloak factor 10% at Medium range (Short increased by 1)."

5. Taking into account factors 1. through 4., who will fire first if there's combat? Remember, if both ships attack, the first shot goes to the more powerful ship, unless the less powerful ship detects the more powerful ship first, and has their ideal range set for something longer than the range at which the more powerful ship can see the less powerful ship.

6. Does the alien have a better impulse% than you? This will tell you who is able to change range once combat begins. Note that Id percentages usually change during combat (due to ships losing modules), which may change who controls the combat range, or how quickly they are able to do so. Per the rules: "After each round, ships attempt to change or maintain the range using their Impulse Drives to manoeuvre closer to, or remain at, their ideal range.... Changing range is somewhat easier at the shorter ranges." See Galaxion's The Way of Combat - Changing Range for specific details.

7. Is the alien better armed than you? Will his in-range weapons cause more damage than yours? The answer may be different at different ranges. See the weapon/damage chart in the Combat Generally section.

8. Does the alien have better shielding than you? Consider the base shielding for each module (25 per mod, per tech level) and each artifact (200), as well as the number of working shield modules (an additional 120 shield points per tech level of that shield). Note that alien shielding is always spread evenly about the ship. Players on the other hand may allocate their non-base shielding to some modules and not others.

9. Did you consider the effect of curses and blessings on your answers to factors 4, 6, 7 & 8? What about favouring? Note that curses come only from artifacts, while blessings come from both artifacts and the Bless module spells. Also remember that while aliens sometimes carry an artifact, they are unable to cast spells. [15]

The last paragraph of the combat rules says (in part), "Combat is further modified by each player's strategy in that they can "favour" one of weapons, shields, engines, sensors, cloaks or fleeing. The favoured equipment or activity is 50% more effective then it would be otherwise." [16] Don't be mislead by the use of the word "player's" -- both players and aliens use the favour mechanism (go back to factor 3 of this section for more on how alien favouring works).

After considering all these factors, who has the advantage? What range do you want/need to fight at? Think about how much damage you are willing to risk (i.e., what will you need to set your retreat threshold for), and how much the alien's modules are worth to you.

So can I fight now, or what?

For non-homeworld aliens, if you have more in-range fire-power and can control range -- and assuming the alien doesn't have too much extra shielding -- then combat probably makes sense. In your first fight or two, look for aliens with few or no weapons, which will make your tactical decisions much easier. As you get more comfortable with the combat system, you can engage in riskier alien combat, but take it slow at first.

Targeting modules

If there's a module that you want or need to target first in combat, you must select that module in the "Demands" menu AND in the "Targetted" menu (along with any other modules you want to target). The other specifically targeted modules will then be selected in random order. If you make it through your entire target set, then random targeting will occur -- the alien's remaining working modules will almost always be removed first, followed by the remaining broken modules. [17]

Aliens never target specific modules (not even when a hostile/chotic alien demands a module). Instead, they almost always randomly target working modules first, followed by broken modules. As a result, players frequently leave all their broken modules unshielded against aliens, since they're very unlikely to be targeted.

Once you've identified the modules you need to target to win (usually in-range weapons, sometimes impulse drives and shields), think about what else you'd like to acquire for your ship. Keep in mind that combat loot gets sorted in the order modules are typically listed on your ship -- engineering, science, medical, then shields and weaponry from adjacent range (rams) to remote range (fighters). In addition, damage gets progressively worse in the same order, 0 to 15% per module (cumulative), regardless of when the mods were shot off during battle. For example, if you happened to target one of everything, see the list at the right for how they might get to you. Mods reduced to less than 1% reliability are destroyed.

Ships automatically start to flee as soon as they lose all their working weapons, regardless of their retreat threshold. In fact, aliens often flee even before all their weapons are removed. Therefore, if you target only working weapons, you won't take too many other modules that result in the weapons-loot being badly damaged or destroyed. Another way to minimize damage to the loot is to select an ideal range that does the least amount of damage possible per combat round (while still doing enough to win the battle and minimize damage to yourself, of course). This will tend to get you fewer modules, but the modules you do get will be in better condition.

Some factors to consider when targeting (or not targeting) modules:

• Do your officers have the skill levels to maintain the alien modules you want?

• Do any of your officers have a significant backlog of maintenance or repairs?

• Pods don't take damage in combat (even though they sort near the bottom of the loot list), and they frequently contain valuable trade goods. If you can only target one discressionary module, this is often the one to go for.

• Artifacts gain a random module-curse when they are taken from another ship. All modules of the cursed type function at half their normal percentage until the curse is removed by a 70-favour spell.

But what if I can't win the fight?

In some cases you may not be able to win the battle, but you can flee quickly enough to avoid damage, meaning that combat is still worthwhile. For a quick-flee strategy to work, you generally need to be able to start the fight at remote range against a similar-mass (or larger) alien that has few if any long range weapons, with your Combat Strategy set to "Favour Fleeing" and your Retreat Threshold set to "0". You'll usually target the alien's longest range weapons, or possibly his impulse engines (being careful not to drop the alien's impulse% below yours if he's at his homeworld).

Although somewhat confusingly described in the 2nd to last paragraph of the combat rules, a ship attempting to flee from combat scores between 4 and 10 "escape" points each round (4 at adjacent range, up to 10 at remote range), plus another 4 to 10 escape points whenever it loses a module after the first round. "The number of escape points needed is set by the relative masses of the ships, and is equal to 50 for ships of the same mass, with a limit of 10 for a ship fighting a much larger opponent, or 90 for a ship fighting a much smaller opponent." Ships that Favour Fleeing need 1/3 fewer escape points, and ships choosing "Flee" as their Diplomatic Option gain escape points for any modules shot off during the first round of combat. See Galaxion's The Way of Combat - Fleeing.

However, when facing a hostile, chaotic, or enemy alien that has you at a disadvantage where a quick-flee strategy isn't viable, take steps to avoid combat. Options include casting the Micro-jump Flee spell (a 25-favour Engineering spell which has a chance of success equal to your warp%), hiding in space, or casting the Pacify spell against the appropriate alien nation (a 75-favour Medical spell). Aliens are incapable of countering Micro-jump Flee, and almost never hunt. [18] Although hiding in space requires you to place all your officers on Stand By for that turn, and subjects each of your modules to a 1% chance of breakage, that can be a lot better than a lopsided combat loss. Against enemy aliens, casting the Pacify spell against the appropriate alien nation removes their enemy status immediately and will prevent friendly, neutral, and some chaotic aliens from attacking. Note, however, that the Pacify spell will not keep hostile (or some chaotic) aliens from attacking unless there's no possible range at which they'd have an advantage in combat.

In summary:

Read the combat rules. Sure, you've read a summary here, but reading it again in a different form won't hurt, and could help a great deal.

Be sure you outgun the alien (and/or that you can quickly remove the alien's weapons), and that your impulse, cloak and sensor percentages are high enough for you to meet the alien at the range you want (taking into account the terrain you're in). Set your retreat threshhold high enough to survive the alien counter attack, but low enough to allow a reasonably fast escape if things go wrong. Double check your orders -- a bad combat mistake can leave your ship crippled. Sell or scrap modules that you cannot promptly maintain/repair or trade to other players.

For a different look at alien combat, see Dragonblade's Alien Hunting tutorial; and for a detailed review of combat generally, see Galaxion's The Way of Combat. [19]

The same basic combat guidelines that apply to alien combat also apply to player combat, so they won't be repeated here. The main differences are:

• Players can't self-destruct,
• Players can cast spells, including Bless modules and Counter Micro-jump,
• Players can chase each other,
• Players can plan and execute multi-turn combat strategies, and/or call in their allies for backup, and
• Players are (usually) smarter and less predictable than aliens; in particular they can customize their targeting and shielding.

Consider the tactics your opponent might use. Think about what you would do in their shoes. Do you have a counter-strategy for their likely tactics? Success in player combat is about taking the time to work out all the options before hand, and setting your orders accordingly. When in doubt, read the combat rules again.

Whenever possible, learn about the player you're facing. Check their player page if they have one, and talk to your allies to find out what they know about the ship. See if they're included in the Hostile, Peaceful and Chosen Ships maintained by the Fierce Prophet. Also note that Fierce Chosen normally can't attack ships that are 100 turns of age or less (but read the current Fierce Chosen rules for important exceptions).

As one of the earlier guides wisely noted, players have reputations that are known to veterans. Having a veteran you can turn to for counsel in such situations can be quite valuable. It's one reason players join alliances. Also be aware that small ships sometimes have big allies (although this is less true than it used to be, now that traditional alliances aren't as common as they used to be).

It's imperative that you enter adequate defensive orders at every meeting with another player-ship, even if you're convinced the ship has peaceful intentions. You never know when a potential bandit will show their true colors, or when a sharp captain will seek to improve their position (at your expense).

As with aliens, there are times when you'll need to avoid player-combat. However, unlike aliens, who rarely hunt and are incapable of countering the Micro-jump Flee spell, players can hunt at any time (so long as all their officers stay on Stand By), and can cast the Counter Micro-jump spell (so long as they have at least 25 weaponry favour). In time, you may also wish to become the hunter. For a nice explanation of the basic hiding and hunting mechanics and the various risks involved, see Doug Robert's The Only Hunting and Hiding Page You'll Ever Need. If you're being chased by a more powerful ship and you don't have an ally to run to, you might try jumping to a crowded alien homeworld, where aliens or other players may come between you and your opponent. If all else fails, you can jump to the Holiday Planet and wait them out.

No matter what path you chose for your ship, it's essential that you upgrade your demo modules to high-reliability (%) non-demo modules as soon as possible. This can be done by purchasing modules from shops, making trades with players, successfully completing adventures, and shooting them off of aliens or players.

There are more-or-less three schools of thought when it comes to newbies acquiring modules. The first argues that primitive mods are the best early investment because they're cheap and easy to maintain for low-skill officers. Even at $100 each, a range of modules can be purchased, giving players some flexibility early on. The second school argues that primitive modules are too ineffective to be worth buying, and that they should be immediately bypassed for 95% basic mods (or even 95% mediocre mods on occasion). The third school, as you might guess, suggests a blending of the two approaches, often with a primitive warp and fighter to start, followed by basic mods to the extent practicable.

In my view, there's no "best" way, although the second approach -- skipping primitive mods and going right to basics -- is probably more appropriate for experienced players re-starting with a new ship. Frankly, part of your decision will depend on what shop-modules you happen to come across in your first several turns. No matter what your strategy is -- Trading, Adventuring, Alien Combat, or a combination -- you need a warp early on, and it might be hard to pass up the first 95% primitive or basic warp you see, regardless of your tech-preference.

If you have a choice, try to acquire mods with a high energy yield (EY), since they earn more $ every turn they're working. This creates higher energy returns for your ship each turn, and can make a big difference over time. Also, be sure that your officer has the skill to maintain any modules you acquire (assuming you intend to keep them). Here's a breakdown of the skill levels required for each module-tech (plus the base shielding per module-tech), along with two examples:

As you obtain new modules, be sure to maintain them up to 99% reliability ASAP. If the module is currently broken, maintain it to 99% before you repair it. This type of maintenance strategy will minimize breakage and make your ship as efficient as possible. [20]

If you happen to have one (and only one) module of a specific type (warp, impulse, sensor, etc...), then the "Lucky Module" spell (which costs 10 favour) makes that module act as tech level 0 for repair and maintenance that turn, and prevents it being targeted in combat. This can also be a useful spell for doing repair trades with veteran ships.

As your ship grows you may be presented with the opportunity to acquire artifacts. These can be quite valuable to your vessel -- not only to bless individual attributes of your ship, but also to unlock the various stargates scattered around the TBG universe. Unfortunately, when an artifact is first acquired it will carry one or more curses, and each curse-type can only be removed by casting the appropriate Uncurse spell(s) for 70 favour (however, removing a curse on one artifact removes all curses of that type, no matter how many artifacts with that curse you have). Artifacts also consume 5 favour per turn, and will become temporarily unusable if you run out. So be sure you have a sufficient favour income before adding artifacts to your ship.

Obviously modules don't always present themselves to you when you'd like, but if you keep the lines of communication open with other ships you may be able to negotiate a trade or learn of a nearby shop with the elusive module you need. Remember, it's a game of diplomacy. One popular newbie trading technique is to offer a broken module of a tech-level you can't yet maintain (say mediocre) to a more powerful ship looking to get rid of high-percentage but lower tech modules (such as basic). Also, more powerful ships will frequently give newbies a free module or other assistance if you're simply sharp enough to hail them. The really smart newbies will offer powerful ships something in return (even if it's just information), because that's a way to make allies you can turn to in the future.

Players should try to avoid hoarding modules they don't need or can't repair in a reasonable period of time. While growing more powerful often means growing larger, keeping your mass down increases your ship's percentages. For a short discussion on the pros and cons of increasing ship size (aimed mainly at older ships), see Galaxion's A Discourse on Ship Configuration. The TBG FAQ page Favor, Artifacts, Blessing, and Spells also has some helpful module/artifact related tidbits.

The early importance of officer skills and crew hiring is going to depend largely on your strategy. As noted above, traders shouldn't worry about them much at all, alien hunters can take it or leave it, and for adventurers they're essential. In a nutshell, increasing the skill levels of your officers boosts your ship percentages, allows you to go on more difficult adventures, and improves your ability to maintain modules.

The best ways to gain officer skills early on are to repair your demo mods after they break the first time (that's 2 skill levels per officer), and maintain any non-demo mods you acquire (that's 1 skill level for the first module of each type you maintain, 2 skill levels per officer total). Hacking starnet terminals is good if you know or can guess the password (also see the sometimes helpful TBG_Terminal_Codes mailing list), as is completing adventures (although after levels 0 and 1, you'll also need some crew).

Basically, you want to try and increase your officer skills without spending $, until you really need a skill level or two to do an adventure or maintain a module. By that time, you should have made some $ doing a trade run or two, bought a non-demo warp and probably a few other mods, and then it's OK to spend a little $ on crew (who can then be trained to boost officer skill levels even further). Just remember that crew get paid $1 each per turn, so you generally shouldn't hire more than your ship's energy yield.

You can recruit crew from hiring halls (map) or from rogue bands. Only 1 zero-skill recruit can be hired from a hiring hall per turn, per officer (except at Olympus, where you can hire up to 2 per turn, per officer), unless you cast the appropriate "Charm Recruits" spell(s) for 20 favour. The "Charm Recruits" spell, when used in conjunction with recruiting from a hiring hall, will attract a crewperson as skilled as the recruiting officer. Rogues on the other hand usually come in larger numbers and skill levels, up to the maximum your officer can support (the exact number of rogues and their skill level is random, and their skill is also limited by the tech level of the rogues' race). Note also that hiring rogues requires an officer action, that occasionally the attempt to hire rogues fails, and if you do hire rogues you'll become an enemy of the rogues' government.

Once you've taken all these steps, and assuming you still have plenty of spare $, it's probably time to send your officers to school (map) ($50 for School Level 1, and $100 for School Level 2). At that point, Academy (map) Level 1 is a reasonable investment too ($100), but further academy training (which gets quite expensive; $400, $900, etc...) should wait until you've accumulated a lot more $.

In a nutshell, there are four Great Old Ones (powerful aliens) that reward players for engaging in specific activities, giving "favour" which can be used to cast spells that help your ship, crew or game position. Successfully completing an adventure has a 50% chance of earning the player favour in that skill type (the higher the adventure level, the more potential favour earned). In addition, players who:

• Have powerful starships (excluding weapons and cargo pods) and lots of energy gain engineering favour.
• Successfully access ancient computers (starnet terminals) gain science favour. [21]
• Fight alien plagues (which requires at least one working sickbay) gain medical favour. [22]
• Have alien enemies or shoot modules off of alien or player ships gain weaponry favour.

If you access a starnet terminal, cure a plague at an alien homeworld, or make an alien enemy, you accumulate one point of favour every turn, up to your effective officer skill in the relevant area. If you keep your number of terminal accesses close to your science skill level, plagues cured close to your medical skill level, and alien enemies close to your weaponry skill level, then you'll maximize the favor you receive each turn. You also accumulate a variable amount of engineering favor for having "powerful starships" (lots of engineering, science and medical modules) and/or lots of energy. Engineering favour is more difficult to maximize since the exact accrual formula isn't known, but the higher your engineering skill the better. Adventures (3 to 158 favour depending on the adventure level) and combat (1 point of favor per tech level your opponent loses) provide favour that isn't limited by your effective skill level.

Each Great Old One accepts a single player as their Prophet, providing them additional favour. Players can support a Prophet by "praising" at a cost of 15 favour, or oppose them by "denouncing" at a gain of 15 favour to the player (although you must have 15 favour to cast it) which is taken from the Prophet's pool of favour. Players become Prophet, or challenge an exisiting Prophet, by casting the 100 favour "Become Prophet" spell. When challenging an existing Prophet (which is referred to in TBG shorthand as "schisming"), the spell drains 100 favour from both the casting player and the Prophet.

Praising and denouncing are also ways of storing favour with a Prophet or trading favour between allies, although this is generally done with the advanced permission of the Prophet. Denouncing without permission is frowned on, and is likely to get you excommunicated. Excommunication, or "heretic" status, "penalises them with a 'demicurse' on the modules associated with the Prophet's skill area, and prevents them from gaining favour using the denounce spell again (instead it costs both the caster and the prophet 15 favour)."

Players may also be "Chosen" by the Prophets, a special supporter status. "Chosen players may use the Commune action with the appropriate officer to gain favour equal to that officer's skill (including crew bonus). Chosen players get a bonus of +16 in the effective (officer + crew) skill, and are automatically "demiblessed" in the two areas governed by the appropriate Great Old One (e.g. warps and impulses for Mighty chosen). A demiblessing works like a normal blessing, but only half as much. Demiblessings don't add to other blessings." [23] Chosen players may also dip into their Prophet's pool of favour to cast spells if they lack sufficient favour of their own. After you cast the 100 favour "Enlightenment" spell for the appropriate officer, you can visit Olympus (the home of the Great Old Ones) if Chosen [24], and while there you get extra favour -- a random amount between 1 and the skill level of the appropriate officer(s) -- in your Chosen area(s). Enlightenment also gives you access to spells related to Dybuk of Evil, which can be most useful if you have the necessary 200 favour.

Finally, before taking sides in any religious issues, you should read the player pages of the current Prophets, their Chosen, and their heretics or other critics. Here's some basic information to get you started (you can generally be added to the Prophet mailing lists by request, except as noted):

Popcorn is a commodity that can be collected from just a single source in the galaxy, but the source periodically moves from star system to star system (this happens when Dybuk of Evil is released or re-imprisoned; see below). Popcorn can be detected from other systems by ships with good enough sensors using a long range sensor scan (science action). Harvesting Popcorn requires good impulse drive, sensor and shield factors, and tends to get harder with each successful harvesting. Popcorn is stored inside the ship and does not take up pod space.

Selling Popcorn is fairly lucrative, with a maximum value of $200 a piece, but total sales may not exceed $1000 a turn. The exact price depends on how much Popcorn is sold that turn by all ships, and is calculated as $1000 / ( 4 + number sold) per piece of Popcorn. Thus, 1 piece of Popcorn will sell for $200, 2 pieces for $166 each, 3 pieces for $142 each, etc.... Popcorn can also be sold from anywhere in the galaxy (just like modules). Unfortunately, Popcorn is extremely toxic. Crew health drops 1% for every Popcorn you're holding per turn, so if you're holding 21 Popcorn, your crew health goes down 21% each turn. As a result, Popcorn collectors tend to have little or no crew, and have to adjust their strategic choices accordingly.

The Popcorn source is also the prison of Dybuk of Evil. Although not referenced in the rules, Dybuk has the power to do great damage to the players he pairs with. When Dybuk is imprisoned, he will offer to give players Popcorn in exchange for releasing him. If released via a science spell, Dybuk takes the form of Weasel 127 (although it takes him a full turn to do so) and uses that vessel to chase a randomly selected player ship. Each subsequent turn, another randomly selected player ship is chased, until such time as Dybuk is banished. As a punishment for releasing Dybuk, the Old Ones cut all the favour levels of the releasing player in half.

When Dybuk inhabits Weasel 127, he will always be the most powerful ship in the star system, regardless of the power index of his vessel. As a result, he may attempt to chase one player ship, but end up pairing with another. In addition, Dybuk is unable to chase players to either Olympus or the Holiday Planet. On turns where he attempts to chase such a player, he ends up at a random star system.

• A Bangy-bomb, which reduces the reliability of every module on the player's ship by 20%.
• A Logic-bomb, which purges all the player's starnet terminal accesses. If used in a system with a starnet terminal, it also purges all accesses at that terminal.
• A Bio-bomb, which reduces the player's crew health by 20%. If used at an alien homeworld, it erases the "Plagues Cured" status at that location for all ships.

Dybuk will not always launch all (or any) of his bombs. However, the only sure way to thwart Dybuk is through the casting of powerful spells, which cost 200 favour each. They are:

• Engineering -- "Protect Ship", which stops bangy bombs and logic bombs.
• Science -- "Predict Evil's Movement", which allows the player to see which ship Dybuk will follow the next turn.
• Medical -- "Protect Crew", which stops bio bombs.
• Weaponry -- "Banish Evil", which re-imprisons Dybuk.

Historically, those that release Dybuk are scorned and hunted by most players. Because Dybuk's release and Popcorn sales are published in the SST, and because few systems are safe from prying eyes, if you release Dybuk, it's quite likely you'll be discovered and punished. TBG's gamemaster intended Dybuk as a mechanism for young/weak players to threaten the strong, and has suggested that newbies could band together and release Dybuk "with minimal effort and risk each. The felling of forest giants, even at random, should be an integral part of saplings' growth plans." However, the reality is that Dybuk tends to harm mid-sized ships the most (powerful enough to make likely targets, weak enough to lack the favour to protect themselves) not the very powerful. The result is that Dybuk releases piss off almost everyone, not just the most powerful.

When Dybuk is free, Chosen of the Mighty Prophet (and others) often offer protection here to ships lacking the favour to cast the Protect Ship spell themselves. This information also appears in e-mail form via The TBG Dybuk Protection List.

For more information, see the TBG FAQ page on Dybuk and Popcorn. Note that there is at least one error on this page. Although it states that all ships have an equal chance of being chased by Dybuk, in fact, Dybuk is slightly more likely to chase ships with a higher power index.

There are 8 magic rings: 4 good and 4 evil, one associated with each skill type (engineering, science, medical and weaponry). Rings start in random locations and are reported when discovered by normal exploration. Evil rings can be picked up freely, while good rings can be collected using an expensive spell.

Evil rings are meant to give younger ships a chance to gain power relatively quickly, but at the cost of a similarly rapid downfall. In attempted combat with other players, officers holding evil rings steal all the skills of their counterpart that they don't already have. Taking skills prevents physical combat from occurring, but if there are no skills to steal, combat occurs as usual.

Ships with evil rings are moved (at no cost) to the star with the most other ships (players and aliens) at the end of each turn. In addition, like aliens, evil ring bearers can't be chased. Evil rings also provide an extra crew recruit every turn up the officer's command limit.

Good rings cost 100 favour to pick up, and the wearer automatically gives 10 favour to every other player in the same star system at the end of the turn. Their only benefit is that they mutually annihilate with evil rings of the same skill-type, before the evil ring can steal any skills. In addition, an officer that loses their evil ring loses all their skills, even ones they had before they picked up the ring. If the good ring holder runs out of favour before meeting their evil ring-carrying counterpart, then the good ring is lost. Lost or destroyed rings are recycled as new exploration finds.

As a practical matter, evil ring bearers usually attempt to demand a module from the player ships they're paired with, in exchange for not stealing their skills. The reason for this is simple -- the more skills an evil ring holder steals, the less leverage it has over the players it meets. The more skills they take, the more ships that can engage them in conventional combat. Once they're vulnerable to combat, ships with evil rings are easily trapped by players -- simply get enough players in one system and all the evil ring bearers will automatically come to you, where they can usually be crippled or destroyed.

In most cases, once the evil ring strategy starts to go sour, the evil ring bearer quits or restarts to escape a hopeless situation. Because of this inevitable progression, it's often not necessary to use a good ring against an evil ring bearer. TBG's gamemaster has suggested that newbies band together, find the evil rings, and "have four ships acting as short-life skill-suckers costing strong players dozens or hundreds of turns of progress whenever one gets caught." In practice, evil ring bearers are usually forced to absorb the skills of too many weak or mid-sized ships (leaving them vulnerable to attack) to threaten "strong" players.

Criminals

Criminals are detected by direct exploration (i.e., they are not discovered by sensors) of certain locations -- asteroid belts (map), colonies (map), factories (map), hiring halls (map), homeworlds (map), moons (map) and oceans (map). [25] Once discovered, the weaponry officer can attempt capture if the officer has some crew (with a chance that crew may be killed in combat depending on the officer's total skill). When a criminal is caught, they can be interrogated to find other (hopefully higher ranked) criminals. Interrogation is not always successful on a given turn, but multiple interrogations can reveal more than one criminal. Criminals can then be taken to a prison (map), or released for a bribe (either $ or the identity of their boss). Players can hold only one criminal at a time.

Heavy's are the lowest level criminal, and are worth $500 when turned over to a prison or released for a $ bribe. Their bosses are Assassins, who are believed to be worth $2000 based on the old payout progression. Each level of criminal bosses continue to increase in value (believed to be $4500 to $8000 to $12500 to $18000), until the Godparent, which is believed to be worth $24500.

Hunting criminals can be quite useful for newbies in need of $ and with weaponry actions and crew to spare. Although finding your first Heavy may be difficult (there are only 32), older ships often know about certain criminal locations, and are willing to share that information. However, criminal interrogations tend to be time consuming -- it often takes many turns to get a criminal to give up their boss -- making criminal-hunting fairly impractical as a long-term strategy. Only two players in TBG are known to have captured a Godparent, which gives you an idea as to the work involved.

Medicine

Researching and selling Medicine can be a good way to make money in TBG, but it isn't a common approach for newbies. The likelihood of successfully collecting medicine, and the value of the medicine found ($50 to $5000), are directly tied to your sickbay%. Thus, newbies with a typical sickbay% in the low teens aren't likely to do very well. In addition, medicine can only be researched at one of the 26 ocean locations (map), only one can be carried at a time (collecting a new medicine when you already have one causes the first medicine to be discarded), and when found, it must be delivered to a specific alien homeworld (map) in order for the player to receive payment.

That said, as you develop your ship, you should keep medical research in mind. Because it only takes a few medical modules to safeguard your crew, medical officers are usually the least-busy officers on the ship. This allows them to perform actions other than maintaining/repairing modules. Acquiring a few extra sickbays can quickly boost your sickbay% to the point where researching medicine is worthwhile. So long as your warp% is also good, you should be able to quickly collect medicine, deliver it where needed, and head to a nearby ocean to begin the process again. With a little planning, researching medicine can also be mixed effectively with most other strategies.

The original ship Myopic was probably the most successful medical researcher, using his sleek high-tech ship to easily dart about the galaxy. Myopic is also widely acknowledged as one of the most successful small-mass players in TBG history. As Capt. Chris has returned to TBG in a restarted Myopic, perhaps he'll answer your questions if you e-mail him about implementing a medical research strategy.

Mercenaries

Mercenaries, sometimes called "mercs", are ground troops that fight for pay but need transport to battlefields at other stars. The eight types of mercenaries vary in strength and terrain specialties, and each turn, if any mercs are available for hire, one unit is auctioned to the player offering the highest salary per turn. The only use for mercenary units is to fulfill once-per-turn contracts at a random star and with a random merc terrain, with a fee being paid to the player ($30 to $480) based on the number of contracts fulfilled lately. As the rules note, "Contracts are resolved after movement, so it's possible to get to them in time by jumping at once. Contracts are won by the strongest mercenary force in the right place, allowing for the terrain effects on their units." If you have multiple mercenary units, the strength of those mercs are combined.

As noted in What Not To Do (Common Mistakes) and Other Early Tips, mercenaries usually aren't a good investment for raw newbies, unless you happen to be very near the location of the next mercenary contact, and have an empty pod to hold them. Although it's possible to hire mercenaries for as little as $1 a turn, higher quality mercs often cost more (since players are more likely to bid on them), and mercenary pay automatically increases over time. In addition, seeking mercenary contracts usually requires a good warp% to keep jump costs down, as most contracts won't be near your current location.

The best strategy I've found for using mercenaries is to do so strictly on an opportunistic basis. If you're near the contract-system or have another reason to be there, there's a decent merc unit for hire that turn, and the contract fee is high enough to bother with, then by all means give it a try. Offer $5 or so and try to make some easy $. And if you win the contract, immediately demobilize them -- not being able to hire mercs for 1 to 20 turns isn't that big a loss.

There are a few tricks. If possible, put mercs into your demo pod. Although demo pods permanently break after a random number of times carrying cargo, they'll never break carrying mercs. In addition, if you sell a pod (demo or regular) with mercs in it, the mercs disappear but you don't suffer the demobilization penalty.

Even older ships should avoid carrying around mercenaries for long periods of time. Although there are always several ships doing it, few players have been dedicated enough about using mercs that way to be really successful (I've even seen ships go to the Holiday Planet with their mercs -- talk about wasted $). That's not to say mercenaries can't be used effectively for extended periods, but the level of profit involved tends to drop, especially if other ships are competing for merc contracts.

For more information on mercenaries, see the TBG FAQ page, Mercs.

The alien races are loosely governed by a Galactic Council, made up of a President, a Vice President, a Tribune, plus six ministers appointed by the President. Every 10 turns, alien homeworlds (worth six votes each) and colonies (worth one vote each) elect a President from among the eligible candidates (those players with influence over at least 10 alien votes). Since each homeworld and colony votes the way the player with the most influence there tells it to vote, the elections consist of the players casting the votes they control, if any, for the candidate of their choice.

Each alien race is politically interested in one skill area, Engineering, Science, Medical or Weaponry. Officers of that type can spend a turn campaigning for influence at a homeworld or colony, with the ship's influence being based on the sum of their factors in the appropriate modules (i.e., aliens interested in Engineering will be influenced by the combined total of a ship's warp and impulse drive factors). Per the rules, "[i]nfluence decays each turn, 10% if the alien race is an enemy of the player, 5% if not (both rounded up)."

The Industry minister has responsibility for producing shop modules from the proposals made by other Council members (one module type of a single tech level can be produced in a given turn), and the Justice minister has responsibility for producing alien rogues (a single race and skill type can be produced each turn). [26] The current President, Wanderer, and his respective ministers accommodate module and rogue requests to the extent possible. Module proposals and production are otherwise largely based on a sophisticated Production Chart designed by the Council to streamline the process, reduce waste, and help the development of younger ships. Council members also help younger ships by contributing to a public Low Tech Shop Modules page.

In terms of other minister benefits, "[e]ach minister's results include location reports from various aliens. Each alien reports to a particular minister, and makes a report during a random turn once every election cycle." In addition, ministers may receive crew recruiting benefits, and the Engineering, Science, Medical and Weaponry ministers sometimes gain a bonus to their ships' factors in the appropriate minister area when they're in a star system with a homeworld of their minister type.

In general, newbies shouldn't spend precious officer actions trying to gather alien votes. In the early going, you'll almost always have modules to maintain/repair, crew to train, adventures to do, etc.... Only in the rare case where an officer literally has nothing to do, would I recommend that newbies influence homeworlds or colonies. In addition, some captains consider the erasing of their influence to be a provocative or hostile act. Newcomers to the political arena should think carefully before they exert influence at a non-neutral location in the event they have to defend their actions with force.

There is a political position that newbies should strive for, the office of Tribune. The Tribune, who is elected each turn by a vote of all ships less than 100 turns old, may propose a primitive or basic tech module to the Industry Minister each turn. The Tribune receives an alien report like the ministers, and is able to hire larger numbers of crew due to the status of the position. Typically, the Tribune can exercise at least some influence over Presidential affairs, usually by encouraging the production of as many low-tech mods as possible to speed newbie development. A more ambitious Tribune might even use the position to form a new alliance, or to help promote newbie causes in other ways. Even if you're not Tribune yourself, get to know the current Tribune -- they're usually helpful since they need newbie support to stay in office.

"Player groups" is a generic term that covers the two main types of player-created organizations -- Alliances and Information Sharing Organizations.

Alliances

Alliances were the dominant form of player group for about 1,000 turns, with ships coming together for information sharing, mutual defense, power accumulation, goal fulfillment, socializing, and the like. [27] Publicly known alliances are the groups players are more likely to be familiar with, such as Aquila, FIST (The Federation of Independent Space Travelers), and SIR (Surveillance, Information and Reconnaissance). Groups such as these typically require members to abide by certain rules and regulations, and to provide their secret or share URL for information sharing purposes. They also provide varying degrees of database services to their members, such as combat simulators and trade route trackers.

Non-public alliances are by nature harder to track and define, but they can offer many of the same services public alliances provide. Presidential and Prophet candidates, as well as their opponents, have been known to create semi-secret groups to support the cause. Most non-public alliances don't share URL's, don't have database services, and are disbanded after their candidate or cause has won or lost.

Information Sharing Organizations

More recently, Information Sharing Organizations (ISO's) have grown in popularity, arguably becoming the dominant type of player-created organizations. By their nature, ISO's usually try to avoid involvement in "political issues", nor do they offer much (if anything) in the way of mutual-defense services.

The first ISO was Menudo, "a small group of mostly small ships who share information and ideas about things to do in the TBG galaxy" started on turn 595. All of Menudo's members are less than 100 turns old when they originally join, and Menudo remains the only player group whose core mission is to provide personalized assistance to newbies. Menudo was originally designed and run anonymously by Borg Prime, but over time his involvement became more open. After a quiet period that coincided with Borg Prime being on extended hoiday (and eventually leaving the game), Menudo has recently become active again with myself as administrator.

GIN (The Galactic Information Network) was the first large ISO, giving access to anyone who provided their URL and promised not to share the information with non-members. Started sometime after turn 700, GIN gave independent ships an information source somewhat comparable to alliances (more ships, but fewer database options), although many alliance members joined as well. Around turn 1000, another large ISO was formed, DOW (The Database of Wisdom). While outwardly similar to GIN, DOW offered a more sophisticated database and set of services, including a combat simulator. Also unlike GIN, the creator of DOW prohibited certain ships from membership (including yours truly) and created a list of enemies which DOW publicly tracked. [28] Although both the public enemies list and tracking were quickly dropped under pressure, the list of banned ships has slowly grown. Not long afterwards, DOW made its membership anonymous. Between 1090 and 1120, DOW was also closely affiliated with "The People's Front", a briefly successful effort to take over the Presidency. However, after two rather incompetent People's Front Presidents, the movement faltered. Since then, DOW seems to have stayed out of politics for the most part.

Although GIN and DOW competed for members for a time, DOW gradually gained the upper hand, and around turn 1250 GIN ceased operations.

In summary:

As I mentioned early on in the Guide, I generally don't advise newbies to join any player group right away unless they provide personal assistance to newbies. Currently, Menudo is the only such group. This suggestion comes both from my own experience, and from my long observation of players in TBG. There's no question that player groups can make some aspects of the game easier -- especially finding adventures, modules and the best trade good prices. However, joining a player group means surrendering your secret or sharing URL and all of your hard earned information to everyone else in the group. Do you trust them? Do you even know who they are? Who their enemies are? Do you know the group's history, rules, and agenda(s)? Joining a player group has a way of branding you (even the ones that say you'll be anonymous) -- don't do it lightly.

Some player groups will tell you that it's impossible to advance without being in an alliance or an ISO. Nonsense. I was an independent ship for 300 turns, and became a top-20 ship well before I joined an alliance. I learned a huge amount on my own, communicating with other players, studying the game and its politics, and making allies.

From what I can see, newbies that join non-newbie focused player groups right away often fail to really learn how the game works, and as a result they don't do terribly well in the long run. Player groups give you a lot of shortcuts, and feed you a lot of information, but they usually do very little to help develop newbies into good players. That takes much more than a database.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. Take your time, and choose well.

[1] - Other general pages of note include Stephen Earle's Basic Rules and Game Mechanics pages.

[2] - Galaxion's SST archive was created much later, and presumeably the early SST's were copied directly from Corby's archive. The official SST archive is also available, but it only goes back to turn 410, and omits turns 600-969 and turns 1000-1029.

[3] - Note that module and trade good buying/selling, movement, and mercenary hiring/contract completion, all occur before you collect your ship's energy yield for that turn ("All starship modules have some energy collection capacity, which adds energy to the ship's store every turn"). This effectively means that you cannot spend your ship's energy yield until the following turn. For the rough order of phases in TBG, click here and scroll down to the heading "Does everything happen at once, or what?" The ship's energy yield is collected in the final phase.

[4] - Keep in mind that demo modules cannot be maintained, but that working demo mods will continue to decay at the Holiday Planet. Ships that are still made up entirely of demo modules may be better off restarting if a Holiday Planet stay will last more than a few turns.

[5] - Why wait until you have at least 4 officer skills before spending money on School? Because 2 skills will be easily obtained the first time you repair your demo modules, and the next 2 will come fairly quickly from some combination of maintaining non-demo modules, adventures, or crew hiring/training. Getting to skill level 5 can be important becaus